A review of the 1963 epic “Cleopatra”
Was “Cleopatra” a classic? Well, it was far from being a brilliant movie, but it deserves to be appreciated for its infamously troubled production and its gloriously grand staging. As the film critic David Thomson wrote in his book “Have You Seen …?”: “You have to see ‘Cleopatra’ if you have any remote interest in film history”.The eventual director (and co-writer) was Joseph L Mankiewicz who created a film that became the most expensive ever made up to that point and almost bankrupted the studio. The story is familiar and three major stars fill the three key roles: Elizabeth Taylor as the Egyptian Queen, Rex Harrison as Caesar and Richard Burton as Mark Antony. Taylor and Burton had an affair during shooting and went on to have two marriages.
It is absurdly long at four hours and there is only one real action scene (the sea battle of Actium), but the costumes are wonderful, the stages are magnificent, and the scene of Cleopatra entering Rome visually spectacular.